1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention relates to high intensity fragrance compositions for use in cosmetic, toiletry, personal care and personal cleansing products and adsorbent articles which reduce the amount of fragrance dosed into a product and are preferably hypoallergenic. The fragrance ingredients which comprise the high intensity fragrances predominantly comprise compounds having alcohol, ester or aldehyde functional groups and preferably are sourced from natural raw materials.
2. Background of the Invention
Perfumes in cosmetic, toiletry, personal core and personal cleansing products provide several functions. They mask base odors, provide an olfactory aesthetic benefit and serve as a signal of product attributes and function, e.g. hygiene, cleanliness, mildness etc. Unfortunately, in addition to these benefits, perfumes can also cause difficulties such as problems within products e.g. stickiness in powders, discoloration in soap bars, phase separation in liquid; problems for users e.g. eye irritation and occasionally allergic reaction in certain individuals. Perfumes are also one of the more expensive ingredients in products and many perfume molecules are not very readily biodegradable. Despite these several disadvantages the level of perfume dosed in consumer products has tended to increase over the past 20 years. However consumers have also become more critical of the products they purchase and increasingly they sustainable sources and for fragrance this means that they are derived form vegetable sources and preferably from organically cultivated sources; that they impose less impact on the environment i.e. they are more readily biodegradable and that they meet high human safety standards. These influences drive perfume houses to be more creative in fragrance formulation and in finding new raw materials.
There have been numerous publications which define subsets of perfume ingredients by molecular properties which are particularly suitable for specific applications. Sometimes these selections apply to a whole fragrance and sometimes to part of a fragrance also known as an accord. Selections may depend on chemical reactivity such as the lack of reactivity of certain categories of fragrance ingredients with bleach molecules in products as exemplified in EP 299561 or WO 96/031590. Alternatively the application may define some molecular parameters which can be used as a predictor of a desirable property; so U.S. Pat. No. 5,500,154 defines enduring fragrances characterized by fragrance ingredients having boiling points greater than 300° C. with ClogP values greater than 3.00 and having improved substantively to fabric in laundry applications. WO 97/34987 defines perfumes with ClogP greater than 3.00 and boiling points below 260° C. which bloom when in use in automatic dishwashing applications. The selection may also depend on a measured parameter such as an odor detection threshold. For example, WO 99/65458 defines two categories of fragrance ingredients to be formulated into high impact accords based on a combination of boiling point, partition coefficient (ClogP) and measured odor detection thresholds. These accords can be optionally encapsulated in starch to provide a boost of fragrance from a detergent powder when dispersed in water.
The present invention changes the conventional fragrance formulation which combines top notes, mid notes and base notes to create a fragrance. The terms top notes, mid notes and base notes are well understood by those skilled in perfume creation. See “The chemistry of Fragrances” complied by D. H. Pybus and C. S. Sell, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry (Great Britain) 1999 ISBN 0854045287. Although somewhat arbitrary, the distinction between these three categories is based on a combination of volatility and perceived odor intensity. The present invention identifies a small group of predominantly top note fragrance ingredients which contrary to conventional wisdom and normal practice can be formulated into commercial quality fragrances which match and are preferred to current fragrances by typical consumers especially in the floral and fruity fragrance note areas which are widely used in personal core products. These fragrance compositions also improve some aspects of the problems outlined above. The fragrance ingredients have been chosen parameters. Fragrance compositions of the invention improve perfume performance in the following ways:                the fragrance itself has a stronger impact in order that lower percentages of fragrance (10-25% of conventional fragrances) can be dosed into product formulations reducing the environmental load;        the ingredients which comprise the fragrance are available from natural renewable resources e.g. from fermentation processes, or by simple procedures on materials available from vegetable matter;        the ingredients are more readily biodegradable than those which comprise a more traditional fragrance composition;        by working a small subset of fragrance ingredients it is possible to create attractive powerful fragrances which are hypoallergenic.        
Thus it is an object of the present invention to provide high intensity, consumer acceptable fragrances, suitable for use in cosmetic, toiletry, personal care, personal cleansing product and adsorbent articles which are preferably hypoallergenic and can be formulated from fragrance materials available from sustainable natural sources and which have less environmental impact due to the lower dosage of carefully selected ingredient.